Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas. He taught at the College de France, University of Buffalo and Cal- Berkeley. Foucault’s most influential area of study was social institutions such as psychiatry, medicine and human sciences. He became particularly famous for his ideas of structuralism. He was thought to be the father of the structuralist movement, although he distanced himself from it. He was commonly called a poststructuralist and postmodernist but he considered himself a historian of modernity in the tradition of Kant and Nietzsche. Foucault’s father was a surgeon and hoped he would become one too. Jean-Michel had varying levels of success and school, after WW2 he attended the prestigious French University Ecole Normale Superieure. In 1965 after gaining his doctorate and holding multiple teaching positions at universities all over France, Foucault wrote “Les Mots et les choses” (the order of things). This work was classified as a “structuralist manifesto” and solidified Foucault as part of the new wave of scholarship looking to up-end Sartre’s existentialism. After 1968 the French government started a school called Paris VII at Vincennes and appointed Foucault as the head of the philosophy department. He angered the government by appointing many young radical leftist teachers to his cabinet. He frequently participated in student sit-ins and riots. His tenure did not last long, he was appointed Professor of the History of Systems of Thought to the most prestigious academic body in France, College de France. Foucault went on to stay politically active until his death in 1984. He was the first prominent French figure to die from AIDS
Overview
Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas. He taught at the College de France, University of Buffalo and Cal- Berkeley. Foucault’s most influential area of study was social institutions such as psychiatry, medicine and human sciences. He became particularly famous for his ideas of structuralism. He was thought to be the father of the structuralist movement, although he distanced himself from it. He was commonly called a poststructuralist and postmodernist but he considered himself a historian of modernity in the tradition of Kant and Nietzsche.
Foucault’s father was a surgeon and hoped he would become one too. Jean-Michel had varying levels of success and school, after WW2 he attended the prestigious French University Ecole Normale Superieure. In 1965 after gaining his doctorate and holding multiple teaching positions at universities all over France, Foucault wrote “Les Mots et les choses” (the order of things). This work was classified as a “structuralist manifesto” and solidified Foucault as part of the new wave of scholarship looking to up-end Sartre’s existentialism.
After 1968 the French government started a school called Paris VII at Vincennes and appointed Foucault as the head of the philosophy department. He angered the government by appointing many young radical leftist teachers to his cabinet. He frequently participated in student sit-ins and riots. His tenure did not last long, he was appointed Professor of the History of Systems of Thought to the most prestigious academic body in France, College de France. Foucault went on to stay politically active until his death in 1984. He was the first prominent French figure to die from AIDS
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